I recently updated my aging home theater at my cottage. I visit the cottage a few times a month. So, my choices needed to be a bit modest. I have a few special conditions at the cottage. I don't watch TV there - only movies. So, I don't have cable TV. What I do have is a broadband connection. I needed to pick a TV that would work very well with a PC monitor since all of my content would be delivered over the Internet.
For a TV, I picked with Sharp AQUOS LC-37D90U. This is a 37 inch, high def product with a DVI input, a native resolution of 1920 x 1080, and a 4 ms response time. As a TV, it's great. As a PC monitor, it's wonderful - better than most dedicated PC monitors and it 37 inches! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that there is a better product available for what I wanted to do.
All I did was setup the TV, connect it to a Windows Vista Ultimate laptop with a X1600 DVI display adapter, set the resolution to 1920 x 1080, set the TV to Dot Per Dot as a display setting, and output the audio from the laptop into my existing surround sound amplifier. Done. Simple. It worked without tons of toying around.
I have been experimenting with content. My top choices for movies are Vongo, CinemaNow, and MovieLink. I think that Vongo movies look the best. If we want to watch a TV show, I go to ABC.com, CBS.com, and NBC.com. Each site has 2 or more on demand episodes available for its primetime content. I also subscribe to the Zune Marketplace. So, I can play any music available in its library. If I don't want to pick songs, I create a radio station on Pandora. To date, I don't seem to need anything else. Most of my content is free and I pay for movies. I don't pay a cent for cable TV. My AQUOS based system is very, very cool.
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